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This is a difficult time for Michigan businesses that want to keep themselves safe from disaster. Cyber security attacks have been on the rise for years. This is also the season for spring storms, which can cause data loss that can cripple a modern business. Businesses need to take action now to ensure they are prepared.

What Constitutes a Disaster?

There are several key ingredients that combine to give rise to a disaster. A storm can cause a power outage that results in a network failure. Even more devastating natural disasters can cause a physical site to be lost.

Some disaster situations can cause key personnel to be unavailable. This is a further blow to a business that is already suffering from data loss, hardware loss, or the loss of a physical site.

It is important to consider all possible disasters that could affect your business. These include natural disasters, as well as other catastrophic events, hacking and data theft.

What Do You Need in a Recovery Plan?

Recovery plans have a number of elements that work together to ensure that your company can recover as quickly as possible from any kind of disaster. One of the most important elements is a good backup system.

How to Back Up Your Data

You can use either a physical backup system or a cloud service to back up your data. However, the best option is to use both. A physical backup server can be damaged by a natural disaster that affects your business. Cloud backups are less often affected because cloud storage companies typically store data in more than one facility, and most companies have facilities in more than one geographic region. By using both your own physical servers and cloud services, you can ensure that your data remains safe, no matter what disasters strike your country or region.

Why You Need a Roadmap

A good recovery plan should also include a roadmap that lets everyone in the company know what they should do in the event of a disaster. This is essential to reduce confusion and chaos after a disaster and ensure that everyone works as quickly and efficiently as possible to get your business up and running again.

The roadmap should include several important instructions. If the physical office space is damaged or inaccessible, the roadmap should let the team know whether they should work from home or go to another site. Consider whether you have the right team in place to deal with any disaster you need, or whether there should be a plan to call in outside help. Let your IT employees know whether they need to reroute emails, calls, and other communications to ensure normal delivery. Finally, your employees should know which suppliers they can call if they need to replace hardware.

How Long Does Recovery Take?

When you have finished writing your recovery plan, you should have a good idea of how long it is likely to take for your company to get back to normal. Minimizing disaster recovery time is important for reducing the overall impact that a natural disaster or cyber attack has on your company.

Every recovery plan should include a target timescale for disaster recovery. You should know how long it will take to restore your lost data, replace damaged hardware and physical facilities, and get back to operating at full capacity, before a disaster strikes your business.

What Are the Consequences of Not Preparing For Disaster?

Failing to prepare for disaster can have serious consequences for many businesses. Cyber attacks have already caught many businesses off guard, leading to a serious loss of reputation for those companies. For example, after retail giant Target was hit by a major cyber attack in 2013, its reputation plummeted by 35 points on the BrandIndex scale on just one day. In the months that followed, Target’s brand reputation dropped even further, leaving many consumers with an overall negative image of the brand.

If you lose your customers’ data, or worse, have it stolen by cyber criminals, you will be required to notify the affected individuals. This is likely to damage your company image and cause your customers to lose trust in your business. Recovering from this reputation damage could take an extremely long time.

How to Get Help Preparing For Disaster

Many businesses find it very difficult to write their own disaster recovery plan. This is because the majority of small and medium-sized businesses do not have the expertise available in house to create a detailed plan that adequately addresses all possible scenarios.

The best way to be sure that your company is ready to face any disaster is to work with an experienced team of disaster recovery experts. Heiden Technology Solutions can guide you through the planning process to ensure that you do not overlook any vital details.

If you need to create a disaster recovery plan for your business, do not risk going it alone with too few resources. Instead, get in touch with Heiden Technology Solutions to get access to a team of experts armed with tools and resources, all for the cost of less than one full-time IT staff salary.

Managed IT to the Rescue!

Agility, reliability, security, and affordability -- everything you need in an increasingly digital world.

For more information about Heiden Technology Solutions’ flat-rate IT management services, or the solutions we use to make businesses run more efficiently, call us today at 800.979.9413.